With her mother, Haille, and stepfather both dead in tragic accidents, Melody has only just begun to find a safe mooring with the Logans, her secretive relatives on Cape Cod. But her peace of mind is shattered when a friend spots a photograph of Haille modelling in a catalogue. Is it possible that Melody's mother didn't perish in a Californian fire after all? When she eventually tracks down her mother, Haille pretends not to recognise her daughter. Why is she living with the loathsome Archie Marlin? And why did she fake her own death? Melody is determined to find out. For only in her mother's world of unkept promises and tattered fantasies will she unearth the truth about her past.